Essential Baking Ingredients

If you already have all the baking ingredients you need, you’re in business for baking! Having essential baking ingredients on hand creates almost-instant gratification when you get a sudden urge to bake (or when you need three dozen cupcakes for your kid’s class party)

Always keep these essential baking ingredients in stock:

All-purpose flour: For dredging meats, fish, and poultry, and for pancakes, biscuits, and waffles, as well as baking. Store in a tightly closed canister.

Baking powder: A leavening agent used in some cake, cookie, and quick bread recipes to lighten texture and increase volume. Check the sell-by date to ensure that the powder is fresh before buying. (Baking powder loses its effectiveness sitting on the shelf.)

Baking soda: Used as a leavening agent in baked goods and batters that contain an acidic ingredient such as molasses, vinegar, or buttermilk.

You can use baking soda to put out grease fires and flare-ups in the oven or on the grill. Also, keep an open box in the refrigerator to absorb odors. (Change the box every three months, or it may become one of the foul odors.)

Granulated sugar: An all-purpose sweetener. Store in a canister with a tight-fitting lid.